Evergreen shrub or small tree, up to c. 3 m, young branches angular, pubescent-puberulous or villous. Stipules 3-4 mm long. Leaves in whorls of 4, 3-12 x 2-4 cm, elliptic, oblong or oblong-ovate, glabrous-tomentose beneath, glabrate-glabrous above, rarely sparsely hairy, acute or acuminate, entire. Inflorescence terminal, compound scorpoid cymes. Flowers 2-3 cm long, scarlet, pedicel c. 1 mm long. Hypanthium bell shaped, 4.5 mm long, pubescent, lobes minute, deltoid. Corolla tubular, c. 1.5 cm long, 5-ridged, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens 5, filaments adnate near the middle of the corolla-tube, c. 3 mm long. Ovary surrounded by thick conical disc. Style 1.5 mm long. Fruit ellipsoid-oblong or globose, berry, c. 8 mm long, red in colour. Seeds brown or yellowish brown.